Crushed

This article was taken from the Ottumwa Weekly Courier, Thursday Evening, May 10th 1894.

CRUSHED

A Man Meets Death by Caving of a Bank.

Andrew Dickey, A Worthy Laborer, is Killed While at Work in Padden’s Gorge.

A SAD ACCIDENT.

From Wednesday’s Daily.

Yesterday Afternoon, at approximately 4 o’clock, Andrew Dickey was instantly killed by the caving of a bank in the rear of C. E. Norton’s lot which faced on Marion Street.It seems that Mr. Dickey, along with three other men, were digging under a bank intending to cave it off, and thus make a start grading the lot of Mr. Norton, which is some 20 feet above the alley at that point. The bank was made of what is called joint clay with an under strata of sandy soil. When the sandy strata had been partially mined away, the entire top of the bank had caved in, burying the four men working below it, under several tons of dirt. They were engaged in loading a wagon, and three of the men were covered with dirt but so forced under the wagon that their heads were uninjured and they escaped with a few bruises. Mr. Dickey was not so fortunate, and his head was struck on the hub of the front wheel,fracturing the skull, and probably breaking his neck. He was a member of the Odd Fellows and was an industrious and hard working man. He had lived at Fairview and had been employed in the mines during the winter. He leaves a wife and two children who are wild with grief. Mr. Dickey was 45 years of age. No blame can be attached to the contractor, as the men dug under the bank in his absence. The bank which caved in, is the last survivor of the walls of the famous Paddon gorge and it is to be hoped to be the last trouble which is to  result of that rash piece of idiocy.

 

 

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